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Laundrapp to the rescue! #mosthatedchore

This would make laundry more exciting, at least. Source: andyedmonds.co.uk

To my laundry: How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways… Well, it’s not so much each stage in itself, but the combined time taken for every stage to be complete. It’s accidentally leaving it in the machine when it’s finished, so at the very best it’s set into crinkles that no iron will shift, and at the worst it has starting getting that Bad Laundry smell (you know the one). Or it’s trying to find somewhere to dry it in a small, damp, ground floor one bedroom flat. And then cooking a curry. It’s the time spent hanging it all out, then taking it down, then hanging it back up again or folding into cupboards and drawers. All in all, it is a massive snorefest. Perhaps if my laundry was actually a cover for a meth superlab, a la Heisenberg, it would be more interesting. But it’s not.

Imagine my delight then, when I was asked to try out new laundry-service-to-your-door Laundrapp. This service offers not only dry cleaning but also run-of-the-mill laundry, collected and returned to you in 48 hours. Magic!

As the name suggests, you create and manage your account via an app. As a bit of a user-experience stickler, I was pleased to find that the app was clear and very easy to use.

There are various special offers available (such as five shirts for £10, a suit + five shirts for £18, etc.). They also provide a wide range of dry cleaning options, from duvets and pillows to scarves and silk dresses. Pricing seems to compare favourably with my other local options.

However, the service that really caught my eye was, possibly unsurprisingly following my earlier disclaimer, 8kg of normal laundry washed and folded for £15. Now that sounds like heaven to me!

Using my £20 voucher, I got the 8kg laundry and two hung shirts for my boyfriend. After choosing your services, you are offered a range of time slots for collection. They give good flexibility, with pickups in London 7 days a week – and from 7am to 10pm on weekdays. Next, you select your drop off slot which is 48 hours (or more) after collection. All time slots are an hour.

We waited with some excitement for the door to go for the collection. Our slot was 18:00 – 19:00 and I received a courtesy text at 18:23 to say they would be there bewteen 18:28 – 18:38. On arrival, they presented us with an 8kg canvas sack for the laundry and I set about merrily shoving in everything in sight (and 8kg is really a good amount of laundry!).

Delivery was due for 21:00 – 22:00 two days later. Laundrapp’s text service seemed to trip up on this one, as my delivery was slightly later than the time slot (only by a matter of minutes), but I didn’t receive the message informing me until well after it had been dropped off.

The two shirts looked excellent. The bag of laundry had been folded and packaged into a plastic bag. Having received it, I did realised some of the perks of doing laundry (e.g. the smell of your detergent, laying things out how you want them, etc.) – but these are certainly outweighed by the benefit of somebody else doing it all for you! Everything was washed at 30 C and tumble dried medium. If ordering again, I would take the time to mark any items I would prefer hung dry in the interest of minimised creasing.

All in all, an enthusiastic two thumbs up – this has certainly made a big difference to my week, and if I need a reliably quick and convenient turn around for a dress to be dry cleaned for example, I would certainly think of Laundrapp.

A socially-minded afterthought

In my current situation, I am frequently asked by kind friends if there’s anything they can do/provide to help me. It occurred to me that this sort of service is absolutely ideal in that regard. Removing just one chore – but with the minimum of fuss for everybody – makes a huge difference, without making the patient feel like they are really inconveniencing other people. I can only imagine how especially brilliant this might be for somebody dealing with an ordeal like cancer on their own.

I wonder whether Laundrapp might consider a partnership with Ellie’s Friends, to provide some sort of prize draw or discount for cancer patients to access the service at a lower cost? I’m sure there would be lots of interested people (including me!).

What Laundrapp do offer is a referral scheme, whereby if people order using your specific code, they get £10 off their first order and you get the same discount credited to your account. With the minimum order being £15, that means that for £5, your friends could try out the service AND do something wonderful to help out your day-to-day affairs.

Guess what?! I think this is a marvellous idea and have created my own referral code – BAKINGBETTER – please do use it if you fancy giving your smalls a sojourn with Laundrapp.

I was given £20 credit to try out this service. All views are my own – I genuinely do hate laundry that much.

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4 thoughts on “Laundrapp to the rescue! #mosthatedchore”

If you’re Springstein, you’re born to run. If you’re me, you are born to do laundry…maybe. Your tweet was totally timely. I’ve now decided that I’m born to RUN from doing laundry. Ever again. Big Thumbs Up, Caro.